Summer exhibitions
24 June–13 September 2015
Press opening: 22 June, 4:30–6pm
VIP preview: 22 June, 6pm
Opening: 22 June, 9pm
Palais de Tokyo
13, avenue du Président Wilson
75116 Paris
T +33 (0) 1 81 97 35 88
contact [at] palaisdetokyo.com
Palais de Tokyo’s summer season, “Le bel aujourd’hui,” celebrates at first glance the flourish of the present as epitomised in five new major solo exhibitions: Korakrit Arunanondchai, Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, Tianzhuo Chen, Jesper Just, Patrick Neu. However, although the artists are very much propounding the Zeitgeist, the clear blue sky they offer us is under threat. Beyond their astounding audacity, the installations conceal an anxiety which, in a blink of the eye, wipes out the azure iris of our era.
Korakrit Arunanondchai
Painting with history in a room filled with people with funny names 3
This exhibition is the epilogue to a series of cinematic installations and performances created during the past four years. In the present world where reality and fiction merge together to form diverse paradigms, Arunanondchai develops his character, the Thai denim painter. Painting with history in a room filled with people with funny names 3 celebrates connectivity, the merging of art and life, of fantasy and reality, of science and incorporeality.
Curator: Julien Fronsacq
Céleste Boursier-Mougenot
acquaalta
Acquaalta is the annual flood in the Venetian lagoon. This same phenomenon will take over the spaces of Palais de Tokyo. Céleste Boursier-Mougenot will create a lakeside landscape which leads visitors into an experience which will change their perception of the space. As they move across this flooded space, visitors will enter a stream of images which set the scene for an imaginary journey, a voyage through their own psyche. This singular production also explores a new exhibition format.
Curator: Daria de Beauvais
A monographic book published by Palais de Tokyo accompanies the exhibition.
Céleste Boursier-Mougenot represents France at the 56th Venice Biennale (9 May–22 November 2015).
Tianzhuo Chen
Tianzhuo Chen uses a colourful, grotesque and kitsch imagery, dominated by direct references to drugs, LGBT, hip hop, the London rave scene, Japanese Butoh, voguing in New York and the fashion world to forge an intimate connection between his works and the collapse of moral attitudes and beliefs we see around us. For this exhibition, Tianzhuo Chen is putting together a collection of hitherto unseen works, including a performance with the artist and dancer Beio, the artist collective House of Drama from Paris and the performance artist Grebnellaw from Sweden.
The exhibition is coproduced with K11 Art Foundation (KAF)
Curator: Khairuddin Hori
Jesper Just
Servitudes
For Palais de Tokyo, Jesper Just creates an audiovisual installation and a vast spatial intervention which will transform the existing space and the visitor’s journey. The film’s setting, the One World Trade Center, becomes a character itself, serving here as a phantom limb. The films follow two characters. They mirror, oppose and interact, to explore themes of ableism and of agency as well as the boundaries of body and selfhood.
Curator: Katell Jaffrès
A monographic book published by Palais de Tokyo accompanies the exhibition.
Patrick Neu
For 30 years, Patrick Neu has been developing his skills away from the limelight. With each work, he turns traditional technique on its head and embarks on new experiments which he continues for as long as necessary. The works selected for the exhibition are a nod to his perilous dialogue with the materials and world memory: Samurai armour in crystal, a glass column blackened by smoke…
Curator: Katell Jaffrès
A monographic book published by Palais de Tokyo accompanies the exhibition.
And also:
Les Modules Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent
Basma Alsharif, Shelly Nadashi (both in residence at Pavillon Neuflize OBC, the research lab of Palais de Tokyo)
New interventions on the building
Craig Costello, Lasco Project 4 (since May 28, 2015)
Hannah Bertram, Phoenix in Ruins (in residence at SAM Art Projects)
Aram Bartholl, Dead drops
*Left to right: (1) Patrick Neu, crystal glass and lamp-black based on Surpris!, 1891 (2006) by Le Douanier Rousseau (detail). Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Fabien de Cugnac. © ADAGP, Paris, 2015. (2) Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, acquaalta, 2015. Preparatory document. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Xippas, Paris; Paula Cooper Gallery, New York; Galerie Mario Mazzoli, Berlin. © ADAGP, Paris, 2015. (3) Tianzhuo Chen, ADAHA, 2014. Performance. Courtesy of the artist and Bank Gallery, Shanghai. Photo: Yan Zhuang (4) Korakrit Arunanondchai, Painting with history in a room filled with people with funny names 3, 2015. Video. Courtesy of the artist and Clearing (New-York, Brussels), Carlos/Ishikawa (London). (5) Jesper Just, Servitudes, 2015. Multichannel video installation with architectural intervention. Courtesy of the artist, Perrotin Gallery and Anna Lena Films.
